# Interest in a Cigar App?



## jjashikki (Dec 19, 2013)

Hey guys so I've been frustrated by the quality of the cigar apps on the market right now and was thinking about developing my own. But before I go investing a bunch of time into this I wanted to get some input from the crazy amount of knowledge this forum has. I have a couple basic questions and hopefully you guys can save me some headache if I'm barking up the wrong tree. :help:

So my questions
1) Do you guys feel a need for something like this in general? 

2) Is there an app that the majority of you guys prefer/use?
I've tried a couple apps and I've found that they were lacking in one field or another. Is there one that's considered a standard, or be all end all type of app?

3) If I'm not wasting my time recreating the wheel, what type of app would you guys like to see?
I was thinking about making it a combination between a digital inventory/tasting notes and a general cigar "stats" kind of thing. The digital inventory I believe is pretty self explanatory, what cigar, how many/how much, date purchased and some tasting notes/your own rating scale.
As for cigar stats I know that when I first started out I was constantly looking general recommendations, whether I was in a B&M or just trying to do some research. So i'm thinking of a preloaded database of cigars and it's basic stats. Country of origin, wrapper type, MSRP, strength etc.

I should mention that I'm an Andriod guy so I'm not too current about whats available for IOS. Thanks for the help guys and hopefully things pan out so that I can make a great tool for everyone to use!


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## Laynard (Oct 10, 2013)

I would use it. I used Cigar Boss (I think) in the past, but I wanted a date purchased option, so I went with Excel. Another thing I look for in an app is "free."


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

Laynard said:


> I would use it. I used Cigar Boss (I think) in the past, but I wanted a date purchased option, so I went with Excel. Another thing I look for in an app is "free."


I look for the same things.

I also think a user database that others can contribute to would be nice. so when someone adds a cigar that isn't already in the database others can use it. and auto populate for standard stuff.


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## tnlawyer (Jul 17, 2013)

jjashikki said:


> As for cigar stats I know that when I first started out I was constantly looking general recommendations, whether I was in a B&M or just trying to do some research. So i'm thinking of a preloaded database of cigars and it's basic stats. Country of origin, wrapper type, MSRP, strength etc.


This would be very helpful. And I second the "free" comment from @Lanyard :lol:


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## WNYTony (Feb 12, 2014)

All good comments - I'd use it over my excel spreadsheet. Free would be great, cheap would be nice.


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## Tombstone (Aug 22, 2013)

I like cigar geeks. I like that it backs up your humidor settings and allows for multiple humidors and a wishlist, and previous smoke list. I would look at other apps if there was one.


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## JCubed (Mar 5, 2014)

Agreed, Laynard and AuTechCoM. An auto-populate feature with others' info in the add-cigar area would be helpful.

My wishlist for an app would also include some user/community-generated content such as "If you liked Cigar X, Cigar Y has some of the same taste/notes." Just something cool to assist in branching out a little.

I would definitely put up with some ads if it was free.


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## Indy-hp (Feb 22, 2014)

I haven't tried any apps, but I would use a free or reasonably-priced one if it included all of the stuff I now keep in a list for my own reference:

Price per single, manufacturer, cigar name, size name, dimensions, country of origin, highest CA rating any size same cigar, and my own 5-asterisk rating.

I don't currently note wrapper type or keep any tasting notes, but those features would also be nice.


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## rjwillow (Jan 15, 2014)

I have or had all of the cigar apps on my iphone at one time or another. Never used any of them for more than an hour as it is too much work and too hard to manage (for me) on a small screen.
syncing with a user database would be excellent. What would be even better for me would be syncing with an excel spreadsheet so I can edit on a full sized keyboard and screen.
I mainly use my spreadsheet for inventory and location (5 humis). But the attributes of origin, wrapper/filler/binder have helped my find trends in my preferences. Aside from that, I only worry about the last price I paid and the ones that I really like get underlined. As the stick run out, they get cut and pasted to another workbook page and get a "buy again" or "buy again for x amount" rating.
Integrating the wish list with deals of he day and auction listings would be nice. But it might take some fun out of the "hunt".
Good Luck
rich


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## Emperor Zurg (May 6, 2013)

First, someone (you?) needs to come up with a wireless ethernet cigar hygrometer. One that actually reads accurately of course - that's a challenge right there.
Then there should be an android app that will communicate with the hygros so you can put one in each humidor and just know at a glance how your stash is doing. Of course you'd have to add internet connectivity too so you could be home in Eastbound Squeegee and know how your cigars were doing up at the cottage in Bumf**k Egypt. "Oops! There's a problem at the cabin, Honey. (Humidor at 56%) Looks like I'm going to have to plan a trip up there this weekend!"


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

Emperor Zurg said:


> First, someone (you?) needs to come up with a wireless ethernet cigar hygrometer. One that actually reads accurately of course - that's a challenge right there.
> Then there should be an android app that will communicate with the hygros so you can put one in each humidor and just know at a glance how your stash is doing. Of course you'd have to add internet connectivity too so you could be home in Eastbound Squeegee and know how your cigars were doing up at the cottage in Bumf**k Egypt. "Oops! There's a problem at the cabin, Honey. (Humidor at 56%) Looks like I'm going to have to plan a trip up there this weekend!"


THIS!


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## LGHT (Oct 12, 2009)

Emperor Zurg said:


> First, someone (you?) needs to come up with a wireless ethernet cigar hygrometer. One that actually reads accurately of course - that's a challenge right there.
> Then there should be an android app that will communicate with the hygros so you can put one in each humidor and just know at a glance how your stash is doing. Of course you'd have to add internet connectivity too so you could be home in Eastbound Squeegee and know how your cigars were doing up at the cottage in Bumf**k Egypt. "Oops! There's a problem at the cabin, Honey. (Humidor at 56%) Looks like I'm going to have to plan a trip up there this weekend!"


I honestly don't think it would be hard to do as I currently have almost the exact same setup to monitor temps on my smokers and another set of probes that monitor meat temps when I compete. I have 1 controller for the smokers and 3 probes and 1 controller for my meats and up to 6 probes. Heck I can even have my controller e-mail or "tweet" me when my meat has reached a specific temp to let me know it's done.


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## mi000ke (Feb 8, 2014)

You should review Cigar Boss and try to improve on it. It ain't perfect, but it's free. The best part of it is the humidor inventory which I use. The weakest part is the ease of keeping personal notes on what I've tried, and "wish list" of gars I want to try. And their database of brands always seems to be missing lots of cigars. They have affiliations with B&Ms, a nice feed of all the cigar news of the day, and a structured community blog for posting reviews. They just announced they are coming out with a major update soon, so you will want to check that out as well.


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## elricfate (Mar 2, 2013)

Any kind of user database syncing is going to require internet connectivity and a server to host the database itself, as well as querys and pushes to and from the database in a protected manner, and some sort of audits so you can ensure people aren't putting in Dickbutt as a cigar type. 

All of that requires money. So that part might be hard to do unless someone already has the resources and will do it for free, or add advertisements to an app. 

Second, I have a semi-working copy of Cigar Dossier, access database, that I'm finding it hard to get time to update, and would send that over to you if you want. 

The only problem with Cigar Boss is that there's no source repository so you, the user, can't make improvements to your own fork of code. Also anything that I can't sync between a desktop version and a phone version is useless to me as I refuse to type in a bunch of data into a phone all day long for the initial setup of the 350+ cigars in my inventory.


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## jjashikki (Dec 19, 2013)

Emperor Zurg said:


> First, someone (you?) needs to come up with a wireless ethernet cigar hygrometer. One that actually reads accurately of course - that's a challenge right there.
> Then there should be an android app that will communicate with the hygros so you can put one in each humidor and just know at a glance how your stash is doing. Of course you'd have to add internet connectivity too so you could be home in Eastbound Squeegee and know how your cigars were doing up at the cottage in Bumf**k Egypt. "Oops! There's a problem at the cabin, Honey. (Humidor at 56%) Looks like I'm going to have to plan a trip up there this weekend!"


Unfortunately hardware is a lot more expensive to develop and a lot of it is out of my reach. Coding itself is a bit of a reach for me since I'm actually a Structural Engineer and coding is really more of a side hobby for me. As such since it's very much a hobby kind of thing the app would of course be free, I doubt I could even make a decent revenue with ads unless I outsource coding and bring in some actual talent for this. Maybe one day but as of right now it's really just a fun project for me.


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## SeanTheEvans (Dec 13, 2013)

LGHT said:


> I honestly don't think it would be hard to do as I currently have almost the exact same setup to monitor temps on my smokers and another set of probes that monitor meat temps when I compete. I have 1 controller for the smokers and 3 probes and 1 controller for my meats and up to 6 probes. Heck I can even have my controller e-mail or "tweet" me when my meat has reached a specific temp to let me know it's done.


You just made me so hungry.:hungry:


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## jjashikki (Dec 19, 2013)

LGHT said:


> I honestly don't think it would be hard to do as I currently have almost the exact same setup to monitor temps on my smokers and another set of probes that monitor meat temps when I compete. I have 1 controller for the smokers and 3 probes and 1 controller for my meats and up to 6 probes. Heck I can even have my controller e-mail or "tweet" me when my meat has reached a specific temp to let me know it's done.


Does it hurt sticking a probe in your meat? :rofl:
But actually this sounds awesome.


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## C.Scott (Mar 28, 2014)

Every now and again I hop onto Google Play to see if there are any new cigars apps out there, and have always been disappointed. To be honest, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for, I'm just hoping I stumble across one someday that I love. Like many others here, I've turned to an Excel spreadsheet for tracking my cigars. I can sort my list by date acquired, quantity, rating, brand, origin, name, size, price, size, age, or humidor, all with the click of a button. I don't care so much about researching new cigars, mostly just tracking my sticks.


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## Fortune500 (Jan 22, 2008)

As someone who develops software, web sites and applications for a living, I can tell you the only way to do this effectively would be to pick one feature at a time, and develop that. Apps that try to be all things to all people ultimately fail.

I would focus on the feature you're most interested in and build the hell out of that until it's perfect. For me, I want a simple app where I can take tasting notes and keep pictures of cigars. Everything else is secondary to me. I too have toyed with building it, but I spend so much time doing that already that when I get a moment where I could consider it, I'd rather go smoke a cigar.

As others have pointed out the big thing here is the data. You almost need to crowdsource the database to keep it accurate. Does anyone know of a really good up to date data source for cigars? I'd love something that kept track of available vitolas, wrappers, etc. Cataloging all of that seems ridiculous, thus... letting people add their own data seems best. But then, you have the whole accuracy thing to contend with.


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## elricfate (Mar 2, 2013)

Fortune500 said:


> Does anyone know of a really good up to date data source for cigars? I'd love something that kept track of available vitolas, wrappers, etc. Cataloging all of that seems ridiculous, thus... letting people add their own data seems best. But then, you have the whole accuracy thing to contend with.


Yea... I asked the same thing in a thread a little while ago and got crickets. The only online database that seems to be complete is the cigargeeks database, and I believe that is closed.


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## C.Scott (Mar 28, 2014)

Fortune500 said:


> As someone who develops software, web sites and applications for a living, I can tell you the only way to do this effectively would be to pick one feature at a time, and develop that. Apps that try to be all things to all people ultimately fail.
> 
> I would focus on the feature you're most interested in and build the hell out of that until it's perfect. For me, I want a simple app where I can take tasting notes and keep pictures of cigars. Everything else is secondary to me. I too have toyed with building it, but I spend so much time doing that already that when I get a moment where I could consider it, I'd rather go smoke a cigar.
> 
> As others have pointed out the big thing here is the data. You almost need to crowdsource the database to keep it accurate. Does anyone know of a really good up to date data source for cigars? I'd love something that kept track of available vitolas, wrappers, etc. Cataloging all of that seems ridiculous, thus... letting people add their own data seems best. But then, you have the whole accuracy thing to contend with.


I, too, develop software, and pretty much came to the same conclusions as you  I was going to develop a website that did what I wanted first, and then port it over to an app after the back-end was already up and running and had members. But I was never really able to figure out exactly what I wanted, and I don't have much experienced with crowd-sourced databases. I think a Wiki-type arrangement generally works well at keeping the data mostly accurate. Like Fortune500, it ended up getting swept under the rug in favor of smoking another cigar instead.

Definitely agree with the point about picking one task and perfecting it, rather than trying to make it everything to everyone right away. An app that does everything, but none of it very well, is doomed to fail.


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## Luke.Sodergren (Dec 27, 2011)

I love this idea. There is a beer app out there called Untppd that would be awesome for cigar. Basically, it is one big database of every beer company and every beer they have and it has all the information about both. You can "check in" the beer your are drinking and take pictures, rate it, write reviews and then get recommendation based on your rating and preferences. It is really cool and would be awesome for a cigar app. Check it out. I believe it is only on the android market though.


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## C.Scott (Mar 28, 2014)

Emperor Zurg said:


> First, someone (you?) needs to come up with a wireless ethernet cigar hygrometer. One that actually reads accurately of course - that's a challenge right there.
> Then there should be an android app that will communicate with the hygros so you can put one in each humidor and just know at a glance how your stash is doing. Of course you'd have to add internet connectivity too so you could be home in Eastbound Squeegee and know how your cigars were doing up at the cottage in Bumf**k Egypt. "Oops! There's a problem at the cabin, Honey. (Humidor at 56%) Looks like I'm going to have to plan a trip up there this weekend!"


The next generation Cigar Oasis humidifiers are supposed to be able to do that, not sure how well it will work though.


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## Senor_Perfecto (Apr 2, 2014)

I'll tell you, as a guy with a desktop only, I don't have a lot of interest in yet another inventory app. Seems like everyone has different data they want to track anyway.

What I WOULD use is something that lets me look up ANY cigar, get a quick # rating on it and maybe a synopsis review from a reliable source (i.e. not user-content). Like a Rotten Tomatoes for cigars. Basically I want to be able to be in the walk-in at a B&M and use the app to decide which of 2-3 sticks I'm looking at is the best.


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## Fortune500 (Jan 22, 2008)

We should make a metacritic for cigars


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## Senor_Perfecto (Apr 2, 2014)

Fortune500 said:


> We should make a metacritic for cigars


EXACTLY.


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

Fortune500 said:


> We should make a metacritic for cigars


Great Idea!!!


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## jjashikki (Dec 19, 2013)

Fortune500 said:


> We should make a metacritic for cigars


Haha my ultimate goal if I had the resources for it. Maybe one of the more software savvy people can look into this.


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## AuTechCoM (Jan 13, 2014)

jjashikki said:


> Haha my ultimate goal if I had the resources for it. Maybe one of the more software savvy people can look into this.


Nope you started it now get to work... LoL


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## PlatinumRespect (Aug 16, 2013)

I don't have any suggestions really, other than making it easy to use and work good. (Vague, I know.)

And if it is good, I wouldn't mind paying a few bucks for it. Forget all these "free" comments. If it works good, throw the man some cash for creating it! But give us a free trial to check it out beforehand, ofcourse. ;]


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## sonny55 (Apr 29, 2013)

Hey guys. My name is Sonny & I own Cigar Boss. Going through all of these, I think there are some great suggestions - but I think that we have most everything covered (maybe I'm just partial). A lot of guys have said that they've tried all the apps out there, but haven't been impressed - I would love the feedback about how we can improve. Here are some notes from some complainys that have been addressed on here, any feedback on these would be great.

- Syncing - this is our most complained about issue, and one that we are working on currently. Being able to login w/ Facebook & have your humidor/notes on any device.

- Missing brands - We get a ton of emails about missing brands in our database. I know it's not perfect, but a lot of it comes down to misinformation about the brand name. A perfect example is the Flor De Las Antilles. We get a ton of email about this brand, because people automatically go to the M's to look under My Father (presuming it's call My Father Flor De Las Antilles) - when the actual name of the cigar is just Flor De Las Antilles. There are tons of examples just like this. We try to be 100% correct and label all of our cigars how the manufacturers do. Because of our partnerships with retailers, we have a very up-to-date list (and pretty much every cigar that's in a retailers humidor). We try and add the cigars as soon as they ship, so our retail partners can show the info on their own apps. 

- Date added to the humidor - This is another feature that we're adding. It took some time for 2 reasons. 1 - the screen real estate isn't that large (to show so much data). 2 - what do we do about adding them to the existing humidor count? I think maybe 1-2% of cigar smokers keep track of when 'ABC' cigar was added to their humidor. Then if you add another box, does it show through the same count or not - and how do we not make it super-complicated for people that aren't tech savvy. I think we overcame most of these challenges, and I think you guys will be impressed with our next update.

Any other comments or feedback would be helpful.


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## C.Scott (Mar 28, 2014)

sonny55 said:


> - Date added to the humidor - This is another feature that we're adding. It took some time for 2 reasons. 1 - the screen real estate isn't that large (to show so much data). 2 - what do we do about adding them to the existing humidor count? I think maybe 1-2% of cigar smokers keep track of when 'ABC' cigar was added to their humidor. Then if you add another box, does it show through the same count or not - and how do we not make it super-complicated for people that aren't tech savvy. I think we overcame most of these challenges, and I think you guys will be impressed with our next update.


Hi Sonny, Thank you for posting this for us. Regarding adding dates to cigars in the humidor, I had the same issue on my Excel spreadsheet (multiple purchases of the same cigar), and what I did was I simply added a second (or 3rd, 4th, etc) iteration of the same cigar to the humidor. So when I add new cigars I've already got a few of, I just add another row for the new ones. I don't think people would mind too much if their inventory looked something like:

2 - Montecristo #2 , purchased 1/1/2012
3 - Montecristo #2 , purchased 5/1/2013
etc...

For anyone who is curious, here's a screenshot of what my Cigar spreadsheet looks like:









Note that I have weight listed simply because I also happen to be an ultralight backpacker, and when I'm calculation my pack weights, I have a quick reference for how much each cigar weighs based on a length x ring gauge calculation. Probably not important for most people. But the rest of it works great, and I can sort the list by whatever category I want by clicking on the column header. Sonny, I know your app doesn't work like a spreadsheet, but maybe this can provide some insight into what a lot of us do to track our inventories.


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## PlatinumRespect (Aug 16, 2013)

sonny55 said:


> - Missing brands - We get a ton of emails about missing brands in our database. I know it's not perfect, but a lot of it comes down to misinformation about the brand name. A perfect example is the Flor De Las Antilles. We get a ton of email about this brand, because people automatically go to the M's to look under My Father (presuming it's call My Father Flor De Las Antilles) - when the actual name of the cigar is just Flor De Las Antilles. There are tons of examples just like this. We try to be 100% correct and label all of our cigars how the manufacturers do. Because of our partnerships with retailers, we have a very up-to-date list (and pretty much every cigar that's in a retailers humidor). We try and add the cigars as soon as they ship, so our retail partners can show the info on their own apps.


With the amount of cigars on the market, with the various names, I think a drop-down menu/list of all the different cigars is a terrible idea.

INSTEAD, I feel any cigar app should have a search bar so you can easily find what cigar you're looking for. Give us the ability to type in different keywords, populating the cigars that fit that word.

Example:
If you type in "Natural", every single cigar with the word "natural" will come up. You can make your selection from there, or add words after natural. So you add "Root" (The search box is searching for "Natural Root", and viola. Now all you have to do is select the size Natural Root you're looking for, and you're done.


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## tthayil (Sep 16, 2013)

Great thread. Cigar Boss covers MOST of what you want, my gripes are 1. database updates (i know they put cigars out so fast, may be hard to keep up with) BUT you can manually add 2. My biggest gripe - lost all my cigar notes, every single one. Kept the star rating, but any descriptions I placed about my smoking experience got wiped. So I now use it to keep a humidor inventory and give a cigar a star rating if in the database. I use evernote for descriptions of the cigar experience. 

If I were programming something I'd get inspiration from what's already out there
1. ability to take a photo of your own stick (ie stock pics often used for all sizes)
2. Humidor option
3. star / number rating option
4. Notes ability
5. Export ability (to text/email/post)
6. compare what you've smoked to other users.

Good luck


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## KcJason1 (Oct 20, 2010)

I don't use cigar apps... I don't have time nor the will to try and update cigar apps with inventory.. Nor do I remember to take a cigar out when I smoke one... As far as I'm concerned they are a waste of time..


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## Cocker_dude (Jan 27, 2014)

Yes please.

When smoking, I'm always on my mobile device. On that note, having a searchable, pre-populated list would be a nice to have item. Along with allowing a user to enter notes about the stick.


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## Pj201 (Apr 27, 2013)

KcJason1 said:


> I don't use cigar apps... I don't have time nor the will to try and update cigar apps with inventory.. Nor do I remember to take a cigar out when I smoke one... As far as I'm concerned they are a waste of time..


Ditto, I love the information but I need an app to input my in/out sticks!
:smoke:


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## SeanTheEvans (Dec 13, 2013)

Pj201 said:


> Ditto, I love the information but I need an app to input my in/out sticks!
> :smoke:


Looks like you need one of these (Geminoid), programmed to keep track of your cigars:










The perfect App, can even go grab the cigar for you if you know which you want.


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## Pj201 (Apr 27, 2013)

SeanTheEvans said:


> Looks like you need one of these (Geminoid), programmed to keep track of your cigars:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Oh yeah, now that would work just fine!
:thumb:


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## jjashikki (Dec 19, 2013)

Thanks for all the awesome feedback guys. So I think for now i'll start some low level development and we'll see where cigar boss goes. If it touches all the bases then there's no need for another one and it sounds like they've got some great stuff coming soon.


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## BillieBLVD (Mar 7, 2014)

Cigars are supposed to be about relaxation but from all that I hear these apps sound like more work and that's the last thing that I need. I say this not to discourage the app but for the creator/programmer to understand how smooth and easy the experience must be for this app to be a success.


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## CigarrOapp (Feb 8, 2014)

Hey guys, great discussion here, there are some really good suggestions to enhance our cigar lifestyle through todays technology. I'm one of the partners over at CigarrO which is getting ready to launch our cigar lifestyle app. I don't want to sound like I'm promoting because that's not my intention but we are planning to release a new, innovative cigar lifestyle app, which will be free and available on all devices; iPhone, Android, Windows you name it. 

We are really glad to hear what everyone has mentioned on this thread because it validates our vision and lets us know we are headed in the right direction. This is actually the first time we've posted outside our social media channels publicly about our app as we've been keeping it quite. We have not yet disclosed exactly what our app will be doing but we plan to make an official announcement soon.

jjashikki I admire your approach to do research before starting your venture. I'm happy to share and collaborate with you if you need assistance. If you end up building an app we may be competitors but we support our competition when it brings value to us BOTL & SOTL... Same goes for you Sonny if you ever want to connect and see if there's any synergies feel free to reach out.

Thanks again for everyones thoughts.
Aaron CigarrO


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